Z (MS-DOS) - Guest Post

It's a Bank Holiday! That means I don't have to play a Bitmap Brothers game today! Ha ha!

What? Damn it all. Here's Z.

The Chaos Engine 2 (Amiga)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 9

That's way more low-key than the first game, plus there's no intro and no catchy theme music. Not a good sign. Also the '2' isn't spiky at the top like the other letters, and it's bothering me.

To be honest, until recently I'd always assumed this game had been cancelled before release. I still see people talking about the first Chaos Engine, but I don't often see people mentioning the sequel. I guess that's what happens when you release a 2D Amiga game the same year as Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Super Mario 64, and Duke Nukem 3D.

The Chaos Engine / Soldiers of Fortune (Amiga)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 8

A.k.a. Soldiers of Fortune on the US SNES and Genesis (not to be confused with Soldier of Fortune on PC, which is a totally different kind of shooter.)

The title screen music (youtube link!) this time is by Joi, and it's awesome. Unless you're playing the DOS version, then it sounds like clown music (also youtube link).

Magic Pockets (Amiga)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 7

That's the most hypnotic title screen I've seen since Xenon 2. It's got the standard Bitmap Brothers blue and orange colour scheme, but where's the shiny metal?

The title screen music this time is a conversion of 'Doin' the Do' by rapper Betty Boo, only without the vocals (youtube links). I have to admit that I actually like the track, though maybe I'm just nostalgic. I used to play this game when I was very young, so there's a chance I'll actually know what I'm doing in this one.

Gods (Amiga)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 6

Shiny metal text, blue and orange colour scheme... yep this looks like a Bitmap Brothers game to me.

The title screen music (youtube link!) is 'Into the Wonderful' by Nation 12, converted into mod form, and it ain't bad. Doesn't really fit the image at all, but I couldn't really care less.

Speedball 2 - Brutal Deluxe (Amiga)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 5

Wow, I had no idea Speedball 2 takes place in Gotham City.

The internet tells me that apparently the theme tune is a track by Nation 12 called 'Brutal Deluxe', though to be honest it just sounds like early 90s video game music to me.

Cadaver (Amiga)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 4

This title screen's a bit of a letdown after Xenon 2. There isn't even any dance music.

Xenon 2 - Megablast (Amiga)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 3

I'm just going to sit here and stare at this screen for a couple more minutes. The title screen music is so awesome they actually named the game after it. The Amiga's floppy disk version has a mod version of a song called Megablast, by Bomb the Bass, the CD version has a remix, (youtube links) and they're both great. In my humble opinion.

Speedball (Atari ST)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 2

There aren't many sports games on this site, and the main reason for that is they're generally not very interesting to look at in screenshots. This is the left side of the pitch, this is the right side of the pitch, you've just seen the entire game.

Plus I'm bad at them. Really really bad at them. And I hate them.

But whatever, I'm going to play Speedball anyway.

Xenon (Atari ST)

Super Adventures in Bitmap Brothers Games - Game 1

You know, I suddenly have an inexplicable urge to play every game made by (legendary 16-bit era developer) 'The Bitmap Brothers' in chronological order. Or a week's worth of them anyway.

Okay, their first game was a space shoot 'em up called Xenon. I can tell that without even playing it because, well, what else is a game called Xenon going to be?